Bio pellets stripping tank??

[MattL22]

Ok so I'm on my 6th or 7th month running biopellets in a sro reactor
I started the tank with some live and dry rock so about 2 months in I had a huge slime and hair issue !
I decided to run pellets and suck algae out with every water change 1 time a week it took 3-4 months of doing this and running pellets and Gfo tank was finally clean and I was hoping to see my acros that I had browned out start to re color up .


Now I've been feeding 4-5 times a day pellets flakes and mysis also using liquid coral food generously and acro power I did notice a few frags start to gain a bit of color but nothing to write home about!

Should I step up the feeding ?
Remove 1/2 the bio pellets?
Slow the tumble as much as I can?
Should I try the flourish product liquid nitrate to bring them up I'd love to have them around 10 ppm
I don't think I should feed too much more worried fish will be way over fed!

 

[bknapp]

Some questions:

- How many pellets?
- How many fish?
- Video of the tumble?
- Which brand of pellets?
- Did you start the tank with pellets or add them in later?
- Phosphates?
- Nitrates?
- Still using GFO?

 

[MattL22]

Thank you for ur help ill answer all these questions tonight after work .
Thanks again

 

[StikHedRon]

Once Acros brown out, it can take upto 1 year before they are really back to "normal". So your on the right track with nutrient control. I would check your po4 levels, you never stated what these levels are.

 

[VicD81]

You really shouldn't run Biopellets and GFO together. When run in conjunction they will completely strip your system of all nutrients. Most LPS and Softies prefer a little "Dirty" water. I suggest discontinue running GFO since the corals can feed off of off the organics that come off the biopellets.

 

[bknapp]

You really shouldn't run Biopellets and GFO together. When run in conjunction they will completely strip your system of all nutrients. Most LPS and Softies prefer a little "Dirty" water. I suggest discontinue running GFO since the corals can feed off of off the organics that come off the biopellets.

That's not entirely true. You may reach a point where you no longer have nitrates and at that point the bacteria on the pellets will no longer consume the phosphates therefore needing GFO if your phosphates get out of whack. I don't believe the OP is at that point yet.

 

[MattL22]

Ok checked nitrates with new test sailfriet under 10

I added the biopellets 3 months after setting up tank last July!

Po4 not sure but took Gfo offline last week because I Havnt had to clean my glass maybe 1 time a week if that!

Pellets r 8-900 ml vertex brand in sro reactor with the slowest tumble I could get I took video but can't upload not sure why

 

[bknapp]

What size tank?

 

[MattL22]

Tank is 220 with around 25 fish 4 them good size

 

[bknapp]

I think it wouldn't hurt to reduce the number of pellets you're running (nothing too drastic too quickly) although, it is difficult to draw a conclusion without knowing your phosphates. Acros don't get in a hurry to regain color once they lose it. Another thing that may cause your acros to lose color is instability when it comes to alkalinity and calcium. Especially alkalinity.

 

[mcarroll]

I like Brandon's last comment best. Other stability issues are likely to be at work and many of your corals will need GOOD stability for a continuous period of time before they improve color and growth. Especially, as Brandon pointed out, alkalinity stability. Dose daily, or run an auto-doser...only dose less frequently if your test kit says so.

I'm a little stuck wondering why you added bio-pellets in the first place? If it was due to an algae outbreak, are you sure you eliminated the cause of the outbreak before applying the patch of bio-pellets? Using them to fix a problem is definitely the wrong approach and I would consider shutting off the pellets and running without them until things settle down. You may not need them or the reactor.

I suspect there would have been other causes/solutions for the existing problems prior to pellets. Increase quantity and/or frequency of water changes. Hunt down and eliminate detritus deposits in the rocks, sand, sump, et al. Eliminate overfeeding...reduce fish population if that's the cause of overfeeding. Was a longer cycle needed maybe?

Don't take this the wrong way as we've all been there at one time or other, but it sounds like you're trying too hard/doing too much and moving too fast with the tank. Sounds like stocking happened especially fast. I would do everything you can to focus on stabilizing the tank and simplifying your approach. Try to be more conservative going forward.

IMO - hope this helps!

-Matt

 

[MattL22]

Thank you for ur responses!!

The reason I added the pellets Is because my goal is too have a sps tank with lots of fish and few big fish!!! I also started the tank with old dry rock!
I started the pellets as soon as I could after putting tank and using pellets was part of the plan from the beginning !
Tank went through IMO normal algae out breaks over the first year and seemed to have finally setteled in 2 months ago !
The alk I test every day and dose 2 part every day looking for a cal reactor at the moment

 

[MattL22]

I will remove 1/3 pellets see how it goes but have been in awe of the few that have found that sweet spot and made the pellets work for their sps tanks feeding heavy keeping fish fat and happy is a priority for me

 

[MattL22]

Mcarrol the tank has 0 algae issue for the last 2-3 months over first 4-5 months I had a really bad hair algae out break siphoning out hair during weekly water-changes but once I beat that using wc Gfo pellets and good skimmer tank has been heavily feed and still no nuisance algae.

Not sure why I can't post video of tank so I could help u guys see what's going on !!
Using tapatalk used to be able to link it same as pictures???

 

[mcarroll]

I will remove 1/3 pellets see how it goes but have been in awe of the few that have found that sweet spot and made the pellets work for their sps tanks feeding heavy keeping fish fat and happy is a priority for me

To me it seems too good to be true...given how little we know about how carbon dosing actually works (vs what we all presume is happening but that the research shows is not), it probably is.

(I don't think there would be any "few" to be "in awe of" if the technology were as great as it's commonly cracked up to be. Instead, most would be successful.)

Perhaps if you keep trying the worm will turn. Given the level of understanding I just don't know how you're supposed to go about figuring out what's wrong though. You're basically left grasping at straws: if removing some pellets doesn't do it, will you remove more or change the flow rate? ..or the churn rate? All of the above? That pure guesswork would bother the heck out of me, but you're indicating it's the core of your husbandry plan? Because while "yes my tank is an experiment too" I value my stock enough that I do try to keep husbandry simple and within my own level of understanding. When something bad happens, it's not a mystery and there's nothing/no one else to blame. The key is that it's much more rare to have things happen this way...and when they do, the scale is usually much smaller. You'd laugh at my tank's worst algae outbreak.

I hope this helps...just $0.02.

-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

Post elsewhere and link using the website editor.

 

[FarmerTy]

My 2 cents is too leave the biopellets alone. They are the only thing keeping your nitrates from going sky high with your current fish population. The real answers needed are your PO4 levels and your lighting (type and photoperiod). PO4 levels are one of the biggest keys for color in SPS in my opinion and if you are going to be serious about SPS, buy a Hanna meter for alk and PO4 and you will be using them a lot.

 

[MattL22]

Few sps I'm not happy with that have lightened since I've gotten them they r encusting slowly Imo

 

[MattL22]

Mcarroll u bring up great points and I'm gonna take ur advice if things don't improve over the summer!!!
Will try raising nitrates which I've been doing and removing a few pellets I tried to get a po4 reading with Red Sea low range but that test kit is a total waste of $ !!!!
I do believe part of the battle is getting a cal reactor or doser dialed in and keeping alk rock steady although I know a guy who hand doses and his tank is a totm quality go figure ......

 

[MattL22]

Tybota

Currently using sailfriet for alk am happy with it is the Hanna alk eaiser to use ?

I will give the Hanna po4 checker 1 more try although I bought 1 when it was first out for my old tank and thought it was utterly useless kept giving 0 reading !

I'm pretty confident it's the nitrates and alk but lighting might not be enough 2x 250 w mh
Keep in mind I don't light the center of tank so not concerned with it but tank is 30" deep and even acros at top r 10" down give or take